Well this is a new category for me. This little brainfart came to me while I was sitting on the bus on the way to the ninth circle of Hell...uh I mean work and wouldn't get out of my head until I wrote it. I have ideas for one more chapter but after that don't really know so feedback would be dearly appreciated.

I will also say that while I have made a vague attempt to follow canon to a certain degree in the backstory I have only actually seen about a season and a half of the anime and those weren't in the right order so if it is too far out just call it AU lol.

Olivia belongs to me, all other characters are the property of...well actually I don't even know who owns what anymore but the point here is that I mean no copyright infringement, you can have them back when I am done messing with their heads and suing me would be pointless as I have a grand total of £48 to my name.

Jessie gasped for breath as she stumbled through the rain, up the path and rang the bell. She was praying that she had found the right place, that he still lived here. She didn't know where else to go if he didn't. Every day they were drawing closer and had almost caught her in the last town. She was out of places to hide and James was the only person she could trust now. The only person left with whom she could safely leave Meowth.

The door opened and she found herself facing a woman around her own age. She was pretty with a heart shaped face and curly brown hair. She was also smiling. At least until she saw the state of the woman on her doorstep.

"Oh, my... Are you all right?"

Olivia kicked herself mentally for the question as soon as it slipped out of her mouth. Of course the girl wasn't all right.

She took a second to take in the sight before her. An exhausted girl stood before her. She had long pink hair that was currently hanging in wet tangles around her face and was wearing some kind of white uniform. She couldn't get a clear look at the insignia on the front as the girl was clutching a small blanket wrapped bundle against her chest. A baby? She couldn't tell. The girl's face was bruised and there was a painful looking gash above her right eyebrow that was bleeding freely.

Jessie could only imagine how she and Meowth must look. Pretty shocking if the look on this one's face was any indication.

"I'm looking for James, James Morgan. I..I thought he lived here but..."

Jessie tailed off, unsure of herself now that she was faced with the prospect that James actually wasn't here and she had no idea of where else to look for him.

"Oh, he does!" Olivia interjected quickly. "Come in, please, I'll get him. James! James, come down, quickly!" The last was shouted over her shoulder as she ushered Jessie into the house and closed the door behind her.

"What is with all the shouti..." James stopped dead in mid sentence as he saw Jessie.

"Hi, James." She whispered.

He couldn't believe what he was looking at. It had been 4 years since he had last seen Jessie and they hadn't parted on great terms. He had felt trapped in Team Rocket and had just wanted out but Jessie hadn't wanted to leave with him. Team Rocket was the only real home she had ever had and she had ultimately been too afraid to strike out on her own. So the partnership had ended on a bitter sweet note with anger and tears and feelings of betrayal and abandonment on both sides.

His first instinct was to furiously demand to know what the Hell she was doing here but the words caught in his throat as he looked at her. She was a mess. Soaked to the skin, bruised and bleeding and clutching something wrapped in a blanket in her arms.

"I'm so sorry, James I didn't know what else to do. There's no where else I can take him!"

His brain finally caught up and he realised she was holding the bundle out to him.

He took a step towards her and realisation hit him. The bundle was Meowth.

"What HAPPENED?" He asked in disbelief as he took Meowth and unwrapped the blanket. The Pokemon was pretty battered and looked as though he had taken one heck of a beating but he was breathing steadily and his heartbeat was strong. A fact that had comforted Jessie to no end as she had made her slow progress to the house where she had been praying to find her old partner.

"I can't tell you all of it, I don't have time. They're after me, James, they're close and Meowth can't be with me when they catch me. You have to keep him safe."

"Jessie, who's after you, what's going on?!"

James was running out of patience. It was obviously big whatever it was. Jessie looked terrified and had evidently taken a beating herself.

"Team Rocket, who do you think!" There was a spark of the old Jessie.

"Why are Team Rocket after you?"

"I stabbed the Boss."

James didn't even know how to respond to that. He just stared at her in disbelief until she continued.

"I didn't kill him! I just stabbed him, he was going to kill Meowth, I had to stop him so I just grabbed this letter opener and I stabbed him with it and ran and now they're after me and I can't let them get Meowth!"

She blurted the whole thing out in one breath and promptly burst into tears, clearly too overwhelmed by the whole situation to keep her composure.

James swore under his breath and reached out to hug her, pulling her close and rubbing a hand up and down her back.

"Shhh, Jess, don't. It'll be all right." He muttered, aware even as he said it that he was lying through his teeth. He didn't believe it any more than she did.

"He saved my life." Jessie sobbed, voice muffled against his shoulder.

"Who, Meowth?"

"Yeah. The Boss totally lost it and he was beating me and he wasn't stopping and Meowth just flew at him."

James winced slightly at the image. It must have been some thrashing for Meowth to turn on the Boss. He could see Olivia staring at him over Jessie's head, obviously not knowing what to do or say.

Gesturing for her to come closer, he handed the unconscious Meowth off to her, enabling him to wrap both arms around Jessie. Holding her close he rocked her gently back and forth until the tears subsided.

"Come on. Lets clean those cuts up and take care of Meowth." He said, carefully disentangling himself.

Jessie drew away from him, sniffling and nodded her agreement. It didn't take long to patch up Meowth and he was soon resting comfortably in James room. James took the opportunity, while Jessie was in the shower, to talk to his wife whom he thought had been remarkably supportive about the whole thing considering she had no idea who Jessie and Meowth were or what was going on.

"James, honey, who is she? Who is this Boss? Why would he hurt her and her Pokemon like that?"

Olivia sounded thoroughly confused. James had never told her much about his time with Team Rocket, just that he used to be an agent and steal Pokemon for the organisation.

"I'm sorry, Liv, I never wanted you to know about the life I used to lead. You know I was a part of Team Rocket?"

She nodded.

"Well, Jessie was my partner, Rocket agents are always sent out in pairs. We were together for years, right through our training. Meowth isn't hers, he was assigned to help us as a teammate. When I left Team Rocket I left them both behind, they didn't want to go. We didn't part easily, there were arguments and fights and it ended with us just screaming at each other and crying and me begging her to come with me and she was begging me to stay. We were best friends, you see. I haven't seen her now for 4 years."

He trailed off, unable to continue. He knew it was silly but he couldn't help feeling responsible. As though he could have prevented it if he had stayed although he knew it was far more likely that he would have been beaten into the ground right along with them and it would probably have been him that she stabbed the Boss defending.

He heard the shower shut off and picked up the first aid kit.

"I'm going to go see about patching her up a bit." He said awkwardly.

Olivia nodded but didn't answer and he wondered if she was angry with him for allowing Jessie and Meowth to stay. What else could he have done though? He'd had his oldest friend falling apart in his arms after being beaten to within an inch of her life and Meowth so battered and exhausted that he hadn't woken even with all the commotion; how could he possibly have turned them away. Even after all that time and a less that amicable end to their partnership, he still loved them, despite everything.

Making his way up the stairs he knocked softly on the bathroom door.

"Jess? You decent?"

He received no reply for a moment but then the door slowly opened to reveal Jessie standing there wrapped in a long blue bathrobe that he recognised as one of his own. She looked more vulnerable than he had seen her in a long time. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and tear stained and she looked so damn young.

He held up the first aid kit.

"Need some help?"

She nodded and stepped back to let him in.

10 minutes later they were sat on the edge of the bathtub with James attempting to close the cut on her forehead with butterfly strips and debating aloud whether or not she needed stitches. Deciding that she didn't, he packed away the kit and stood up. Noticing her wince upon standing he reached out and before she had time to protest he had slipped his hands inside the robe and was feeling her bruised ribs for breaks. Her eyes met his for a second and he flashed back to all the times it had been her checking him for injuries after a particularly violent blast off and a rough landing and he wondered why he was suddenly feeling so awkward with her.

He removed his hands and shook his head attempting to hide his embarrassment.

"Nothing broken. You should be gentle with them though, the bruising is pretty bad."

She nodded, looking as out of place as he felt.

Olivia appeared in the doorway then and James was fervently grateful that she hadn't arrived a moment earlier while he was checking Jessie's ribs. He figured that would have been harder to explain, given that he had been blushing like a teenager. Funny thing was he was pretty sure he had never been that shy around Jessie when they were both teenagers.

"I've made up the guest room for you, Jessie. You should stay tonight and get some rest."

She sounded tired and James looked up at her. Really looked at her for the first time since Jessie had arrived. She looked tired and strained with worry and he immediately felt bad for bringing this kind of trouble into their home. He couldn't bring himself to regret taking Jessie in though. She was his friend and she needed him.

An hour later he lay awake in bed worrying. Olivia wasn't mad, he knew just anxious about what would happen if Jessie and Meowth were found here. He was worried about it too. He knew the Boss had allowed him to leave because it was less trouble than finding and dealing with him but if he could kill two or even three birds with one stone...

James sighed. It didn't bear thinking about. He was worried about Jessie too. Meowth had come round for a while and was now sleeping curled up on the guest bed with Jessie and seemed to be on the mend but she still seemed fragile. Like she had endured so much of late that one more blow would break her. Rubbing a hand through his hair, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep. He would think about it in the morning.